Since SEO can be so focused on the written word, people often forget that images can also be optimized for the search engines. Images are an integral part of any website’s SEO campaign not only because they can be optimized but also because they attract traffic and links. People have short attention spans and there’s nothing like a visually stimulating photo or graphic to grab their attention and get them interested in what you have to say.

In addition to breaking up your copy, adding distinctive images, and avoiding large blocks of text on your website, you ought to consider following these tips to optimize the graphics and images on your website. Most of these tips pertain to Google Image Search but Google makes up about 72% of all image searches so it’s certainly a good idea to focus on optimizing your images for Google.

1. Use the alt attribute

The alt text of an image contains a brief description of the image. Be specific, as if you were describing the image to a blind person. Alt text plays a significant role in getting an image ranked in search engines. Don’t just stuff your alt text with keywords. Make sure it’s readable and descriptive to humans as well.

2. Put your images on an authoritative hosting website

Websites like Flickr, Wikipedia, and Picasa are great places to put your images. Anytime you put an image on one of these sites, link back to your main website if possible.

3. Use the target keyword as the image file name

Make the keyword you are targeting the image file name. For example, if you are selling a funny beer t-shirt, make the image file name of the shirt something along the lines of “funny-beer-tshirt.jpg.”

4. Optimize the text surrounding an image

Search engines heavily weigh the text that surrounds an image so make sure the text above and below your images provide context and contain relevant keywords. If you can add tags or captions to your images and graphics, by all means do it.

5. Link images to articles or blog posts on your site

Link images on your website to relevant articles/blog posts on your website. Not only will this help you attract more traffic to content on your site, it will give your internal-linking efforts a boost.

6. Link to images on your website with relevant anchor text

Use anchor text that contains relevant keywords to link to images and graphics on your website.

7. Keep it fresh

If you are targeting highly popular keywords, some experts recommend re-uploading your images time and again since image freshness is a factor search engines use to determine relevancy.

8. Use the preferred image and graphic formatting

The preferred image format is .jpg. For graphics, use .gif.

9. Limit the number of images per page

Your images are more likely to get picked up by the search engines if there are fewer images per page on your website.

10. Create a separate folder for images

When adding images to your website create separate, search engine accessible folders for each image.

In conclusion, these are some ways you can optimize images on your website for the search engines. Currently, most of the focus in the SEO world is on traditional search but traffic via image search is continuing to grow, which will lead to the upcoming discovery and development of new image optimization strategies. And don’t just focus on optimizing images for the search engines either. Make sure you provide high quality images that are detailed, clear, and relevant so you can appeal to human visitors as well.

Labels: on_site_seo, seo_guide, seo_tips

We have designed this easy to use HTML Site Map Generator Plugin for Wordpress blogs.

Main Features:

Display the URLs and/or Titles of the pages.

The Site Map is generated inside your own wordpress theme.

Decide the maximum amount of links to display for each page.

Works with with any WordPress version from 2.1 to the latest update.

How to Install it:

Download the SiteMap Generator File

http://www.seosapien.com/webbadges/psm-generator.rar

Upload the 'psm-generator' folder to your Wordpress Plugin Folder

Goto Plugins in Wordpress Dashboard and Activate the "PlugSiteMap" Plugin

To Customize:

Find and Click PlugSiteMap Option in Wordpress Dashboard Menus.

To use it in your WebSite:

In any post or page paste this the following tag in HTML mode.


<!-- generatepsm -->


Save the post or page and your are done. Now you can view the sitemap in the page or post you used it.

Leave the copyright information at the bottom of the site map to keep this plugin free of charge.

Labels: blogging, on_site_seo

After learning on-site SEO techniques, newcomers to SEO tend to overuse them. There is such thing as too much of a good thing in SEO. When you use on-page SEO techniques, it’s a good idea to be careful not to tread the thin line between good SEO and overdoing it. Some of the most common on-site SEO errors are stuffing content with keywords, developing content to target keywords that aren’t completely relevant to your market, and using an excessive amount of internal links.

Focus on Providing an Optimal User Experience on Your Website

First and foremost, your goal should be to create a website that is easy to use, informative, and helpful. A mistake that many of those new to SEO make is to focus solely on improving page ranking with excessive on-site SEO. This excessive on-site SEO could actually lead to your website getting penalized by the search engines. Moreover, a confusing website that is hard to navigate and full of irrelevant content will not fare well with human visitors. On the other hand, if you provide your site visitors with value, they are more likely to link to your website and this will improve your search engine ranking far more in the long run. You may get immediate benefits from keyword stuffing and excessive use of on-site SEO techniques but you will eventually lose out because it will become glaringly obvious to both search engines and site visitors.

On-site optimization is beneficial but you should not take these techniques overboard. Make sure your website looks and feels natural. A rule of thumb you can follow is to show your website to someone who has absolutely no clue about SEO and see what they think about it. If that person thinks you are obnoxiously using a particular keyword or that your copy sounds unnatural in any way, make adjustments to your on-site SEO.

If you use too many internal links with anchor text containing your target keywords on your website, you may find that your search engine ranking will actually fall rather than improve. Avoid excessive use of this tactic by making sure your website’s internal links are very natural. We’ve all seen websites that have footers full of internal links containing anchor text with target keywords. Doing this is unnatural and does not provide a user-friendly experience so it should be avoided at all costs. If the internal link is relevant to the content on a page, by all means drop the link but otherwise it’s best to save your links for pages in which they would truly be relevant.

Another common mistake is developing unnatural content. For example, if you are selling carpets in Georgetown, Washington DC, you shouldn’t have a page targeting the keyword, “carpets in Takoma Park.” Takoma Park is near Washington DC but it is not actually in Washington DC. Make sure you only provide content that is highly relevant to your market or you will turn off potential customers. In this case, you would want to focus on Washington DC or better yet, the neighborhood in Washington DC where your carpet business is located.

Keyword stuffing of content is common as is keyword stuffing of title tags. If you are selling window treatments in New York, do not use the word “window treatments” over and over in your copy because not only will it sound very redundant for users, the search engines will take notice and penalize you for it. Keep your content’s keyword usage as natural as possible for optimal results.

In conclusion, focus on making your website easy to use for your visitors before anything else. On-site SEO techniques are useful but only to an extent. Your ultimate goal should be to attract links from your site visitors with great content. For the best results, avoid over-optimizing your website and instead focus on providing visitors with helpful, informative content. Utilize on-site SEO techniques naturally in order to make your website more appealing for humans and avoid getting penalized by the search engines.

Labels: on_site_seo, seo_guide, seo_tips

One question that looms in the mind of many is how to optimize videos for the search engines. Unlike with articles or blog posts on your site, videos cannot be seen by the search engines so you can’t expect to just utter a few keywords on camera to get your videos ranked.

Tips for Getting a Video Ranked for Target Keywords

Since the search engines cannot see anything in your videos, there are only a few things you can do to inform search engines of what your videos contain. The title of the video, the comments, and the meta information are all seen by the search engines so you can add target keywords to these areas to optimize your video. It’s also recommended to use a transcription service and have all of your videos transcribed. This will make it easier for people because they can read the transcript if they are too busy to watch the video and the target keywords within the transcript can be picked up by the search engines.

Putting Your Video on a Third Party Site vs. on Your Own Site

When uploading your videos to the web, you have the choice between uploading them to third party sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Meta Café and to your own website. You can also do both if you wish. If you are looking to create a viral video and want it to be seen by as many people as possible, you will be able to get the maximum number of viewers at a site like YouTube. If your primary aim is to get visitors to visit your website, you should put your video on your own website.

How to Optimize Your Video Title

A title that contains your target keywords is of course great for SEO but you’re better off using such a title only for the videos you upload to your site. This will help your site get ranked for the target keywords. If you use your target keywords in the titles of the videos you upload to third party video sites, the videos on your own site are far less likely to rank highly on the search engines because popular sites like You Tube will always end up coming first. When you upload videos to third party video sites use catchy, compelling titles to increase the chance of them becoming viral but do not use titles that contain the target keywords. Save those target keywords for video titles on your own site to attract targeted traffic and build your site’s search engine ranking.

Another factor you’ll want to consider is the length of your video. Optimal videos are always under ten minutes. People are short on time and they will turn off your video if it is too long or too boring. Make sure your video is short and sweet and remember to keep things exciting.

So there you have it. Keep these tips in mind in order to optimize the videos you create for both search engines and humans. While it’s not possible for search engines to know exactly what is in your videos, you can help them rank well by providing the search engines with information through your video titles and transcripts.

Labels: link_building, seo_guide, social_media

Labels: social_media, website_development

Link-building is one of the most important aspects of SEO but many business owners go about it the wrong way. Not all links are going to make a difference in your search engine rankings so blindly accumulating links will not be to your advantage. Of course the top search engines like Google tell us that the best links to have are natural links that you receive without taking any action on your own. While these natural backlinks are ideal, it’s not as easy as it sounds to get them.

Other Types of Quality Backlinks

There are many other ways to get killer backlinks besides naturally. Three factors you can use to measure the quality of backlinks are the source of the link, the motivation behind the link, and the link itself. When judging the source of a link, you have to look at the site’s page rank, how much quality content the site has, and if the site has a high number of quality backlinks itself. Killer backlinks come from popular websites that have high page rank and plenty of quality backlinks.

The motivation behind a backlink is judged by whether you had to manipulate someone or something in order to get the link or if the link was created based on pure intent. An example of a link made with pure intent is when someone makes a natural link to your site because they like your content and simply think you have a great site. A manipulative link on the other hand is a link you had to pay for or otherwise take some sort of action to get.

When judging the actual backlink itself, you have to look at how it is built. A link to your site that says click here is better than no link at all but it can’t be considered a high quality backlink. Ideally, backlinks should have anchor text containing your target keywords.

Tips for Accumulating Killer Backlinks

In a perfect world, hundreds of nice people with reputable websites would find your website and link to it simply because they think it rocks. Such natural links are harder to get than it sounds. The first step you can take towards attracting more of these natural links is by creating top-notch content that is interesting, informative, and useful to your site visitors.

Beyond natural links, there are a number of other types of backlinks that could be labeled killer backlinks. For example, you can share your content with a Creative Common License, allowing people to reproduce your articles, videos, and pictures, just so long as they link back to your site. On those terms, you can receive links anytime someone uses your content.

Creating what is known as linkbait is another way to receive tons of backlinks. Linkbait is interesting content that appeals to a large group of people. It could be a funny photoshopped picture, a catchy blog post about an evergreen topic in current events, and much more. Linkbait, also known as viral content, can attract tons of backlinks to your site in a short amount of time through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Reddit.

Other types of content that are viral in nature include content that can be embedded into people’s blogs and sites such as widgets and videos. An incredibly useful widget that includes a link back to your site can not only bring you a ton of backlinks, it can also drive a substantial amount of traffic to your site.

Another way to gather quality backlinks is through submitting your site to reputable directories such as the Better Business Bureau, the Yahoo Directory, and the Librarian’s Internet Index. You can also drive traffic to your site and build killer backlinks when you contribute articles and blog posts to popular blogs and article directories on the web. And don’t forget about the power of online press releases to build killer links to your site.

Link-building is not an exact science but focusing on accumulating quality backlinks will certainly pay off with time. Make the creation of quality, informative content your top priority and you’re sure to gradually attract those awesome natural links. Utilize these other link-building methods as well to help you achieve your long-term SEO goals.

Labels: link_building, seo_guide, seo_services, seo_tips

The question of whether to link out to other websites on your website is one that divides many people. Some worry that their page will get devalued by search engines if they do it and others believe that it is an effective way to bring traffic to their site over time.

Why People Are Scared to Link Out

Some people believe that linking out will harm their Search Engine Optimization and their reputation. According to these people, linking out is a total waste because the opportunity should be used instead for internal linking. Another issue that people who oppose linking out cling to is the fact that when people click on the links, they leave the site.

Why You Should Link Out

Linking out is nothing to be fearful of. It can actually provide many benefits in the long-term. After all, linking to other sites is common practice on the world wide web and as long as you take care to link only to websites that you think would be useful to your site visitors, you will not hurt your reputation or ranking in any way.

One prominent benefit of linking out is that the sites you link to will notice your link when they are tracking their site traffic. This will lead them to check out your site and your product/services. If they like what they see, they may eventually become one of your clients or send clients your way.

Another important benefit of linking out is that it improves the user experience of your website. Even if you consider yourself a guru in your niche, there’s no way you can possibly cover every single topic of interest in depth for all of your site visitors. By linking out to other sites in your niche on your website, you make your website valuable as a resource and reference. This will in turn build a good reputation for your business and bring your site more return visitors.

Linking out could also lead to backlinks for your website. The owners of the sites that you link to may notice the links by doing traffic analysis, making it more likely that they will link back to your site in return. Linking out helps to build a better online community as well, allowing you to share information with your site visitors and connect with others in your niche.

Keep in mind that search engines place more value on websites that link out to quality content. Search engines use the links on a site in addition to a variety of other factors to judge whether the site is spam or not. Spam websites generally link out to other spam websites whereas quality websites link out to other quality websites. As such, by carefully linking out to quality websites in your niche, you can in fact improve your search engine ranking.

In conclusion, links tie everything together on the web and despite rumors, linking out on your website will not hurt your page ranking as long as you only link out to quality websites within your niche. Linking out to quality content improves the user experience of your website and your number one objective should always be to accommodate your site visitors the best that you can. Make sure to review the sites you are linking out to carefully. Doing so will ensure that the links truly provide value to your site visitors. Furthermore, quality links might ultimately improve your site’s SEO strategy.

Labels: link_building, on_site_seo, seo_guide, seo_tips

Google recently made two new improvements to its search engine. Google announced that it will utilize a new technology that allows it to better understand concepts and associations related to search terms. In addition to expanding related searches, Google Search will also start facilitating the use of longer search terms.

Anytime you search for something on Google, related searches are generated at the top or bottom of the page. With Google’s new changes, there will be a higher number of related searches generated. For example, Google stated that if you were to enter the search term, “principles of physics,” the search engine would generate related searches like “angular momentum,” “special relativity,” and “big bang.”

Google is also accommodating longer keywords. More and more search engine users today are using long queries when they conduct searches. It is common knowledge that long-tail keywords often convert better than short keywords and now Google is responding to that by facilitating the use of longer keywords. As a result of these changes, short keywords and keyword phrases are becoming much less effective than before.

What Google’s New Changes Mean for SEO Campaigns

Now more than ever it is important as an online business owner or webmaster to use long-tail keywords and long keyword phrases in your on site optimization. As for related searches, all webmasters and online business owners should focus on using a variety of thematically related keywords in order for their site to rank in Google for related searches. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are synonymous or otherwise related to your target keywords. Rather than optimizing the pages of your website keyword-centric, it is more effective to include a number of LSI keywords on each page.

The best way to find both longer keyword phrases and LSI keywords for seo is by using the free Google Adwords tool. We recommend it for keyword research since Google is the most popular search engine on the net and the tool gathers keywords from many sources. To find LSI and long keywords, simply search for your target terms and synonyms with the Google Adwords tool. You can also go into Google, enter your search term, and then take note of the URLs of the sites with the top rankings. Then you just have to enter those URLs into the Google Adwords tool and search for “Site-Related Keywords.” By doing so, you can generate thematically related keywords in your niche.

In conclusion, keep track of the new changes Google continues to make to improve their intent-based search options. By utilizing long keywords and keyword phrases as well as more related search terms, you will put yourself strides ahead of the competition. Razor sharp focus on short keywords was once the most common method for improving a website’s ranking but now that Google is facilitating the use of longer keywords and related searches it’s more important than ever to diversify your keyword usage.

Labels: google, on_site_seo, seo_guide

You’ve seen them... those spammy blog comments touting the benefits of herbal Viagra or acai for weight loss. To ensure that hyperlinks would have no SEO value when people left these types of spam comments on certain blogs, HTML NoFollow tags were created by Google in 2005. Any blog comment containing a link that contains the NoFollow attribute does not get any credit when search engine rankings are decided. Many websites and blogs are now using the NoFollow attribute by default to prevent spam comments from being made although sometimes human moderators are still used.

DoFollow blogs do NOT use the NoFollow tag. When people comment on DoFollow blogs and leave a link, that link has SEO value. As such, webmasters and spammers seek out DoFollow blogs so they can leave hyperlinks with anchor text containing their target keywords. It’s easy to find DoFollow blogs by doing a Google search. There are also many tools out there that help you find DoFollow blogs and generate hundreds of generic comments to leave on them. Moreover, services exist that post hundreds of comments with links on DoFollow blogs. Many webmasters and marketers jump on DoFollow blog commenting as an opportunity for link-building because it is cost-effective and easy. However, are the long-term results worthwhile?

The Link-Building Power of DoFollow Blog Comments

When you comment on hundreds of relevant DoFollow blogs, there are certainly SEO benefits. However, it seems that so many webmasters and marketers are desperate for links and forget to take a look at the big picture. The immediate search engine ranking benefits of dropping comments on DoFollow blogs are nice but the long-term benefits of leaving thoughtful comments and connecting with bloggers is far more beneficial as a link-building tactic in the long run.

When you give it some thought, leaving comments on DoFollow blogs may not require you to invest any money but it certainly demands your time. And because your time is essentially money, it’s a good idea to use it wisely and get the highest return for your investment. Rather than just looking at commenting on blogs as an easy way to build links, you ought to use it to your full potential. First off, you must get rid of the narrow mindset that you can only comment on DoFollow blogs. Comment on both DoFollow and NoFollow blogs. Focus on finding blogs that are relevant and popular in your niche rather than worrying about whether they are DoFollow or NoFollow.

The ultimate goal in blog commenting should be to attract direct links to your site from popular bloggers because of your knowledge and reputation. This will have far more power because it will drive droves of targeted traffic to your website.

In essence, commenting on hundreds of DoFollow blogs may offer immediate SEO benefits but when you consider how time-consuming it can be, it may be more worthwhile for you to actually read blogs in your niche and leave thoughtful contributions in the comment section. Ideally your comments would offer helpful information to the blogger and his or her readers.

So there you have it. Consider commenting on blogs whether they are DoFollow or NoFollow with the aim of attracting direct links and reputation. In the long run this tactic will provide you with far more benefits, SEO and otherwise.

Labels: blogging, link_building, seo_tips, social_media

If you’ve ever dreamed of making money as a blogger, look no further. While it’s not rocket science to make money from a blog, it certainly doesn’t seem easy in the beginning, mostly due to all the misinformation out there. Keep these 5 simple points in mind if you want get started now making money with your blog.

1. Create a Big, Popular Blog

Creating a blog that is very big and popular in its niche is certainly the most rewarding way to make money as a blogger but it’s also the most difficult. Creating a big blog requires marketing, networking, and niche knowledge. It’s a good route to take if you have the skills and know-how it requires. Most big bloggers make money from direct advertising and a variety of other monetization options. Promotion becomes practically unnecessary once a big blog achieves a certain level of fame. However, creating a big blog is very time-consuming and it’s never certain that your efforts to build a blog will be fruitful.

2. Sell Advertising

If you build a blog in a profitable niche such as mortgage, real estate, or credit and then utilize SEO to achieve a good page rank, you can sell advertising spaces to webmasters and businesses. Webmasters and businesses are interested in buying text links from blogs with good rankings in order to improve their own site rankings. To get started in this biz, all you have to do is buy a domain with an existing page rank or build your own blog with sponsored posts. It is easy to find advertising buyers at webmaster forums like Digital Point and Warrior. Keep in mind that Google doesn't like websites selling do follow links. You should always use the no follow tag in all your advertising spaces to comply with Google Webmaster Guidelines.

3. Create a Niche Blog Made for Adsense or Affiliate Programs

In order to go this route, you simply have to set up a free blog with approximately 25-30 keyword-rich articles in your niche to start and then monetize it with affiliate programs or Google Adsense. Of course it’s also important to work on your blog’s SEO to improve its ranking so people searching for your target keyword terms can find it. You will only need to update the blog on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. However, profitable niches are usually saturated with blogs of this nature so in order to make a worthwhile profit you may have to make a dozen or so of these blogs across various niches.

4. Become a Contract Blogger

Rather than starting your own blog, you can also join a blog network and create content for these blogs. Some blog networks pay a base fee while others may only pay per page-view. There are also blog networks that pay a base fee in addition to revenue share. The payment methods vary from network to network. Being a contract blogger can provide you with a steady income but it is generally more lucrative in the long run to start your own blog and monetize it so you can keep all of the profits.

5. Submitting Your Blogs to “Get Paid to Blog” Websites

This method involves creating a number of niche blogs, adding content to them for a while to improve their ranking, and then submitting them to “get paid to blog” websites, which will pay you a flat fee per post. One of the perks of this method is that you aren’t even required to have large amounts of traffic coming to your blog posts to make money. However, you will receive no passive income and will have to put a lot of work into updating your blogs.

As you can see, there are numerous ways to make money as a blogger. Whether you decide to focus on just one of these methods or you want to test out each one, remember that success only comes when you invest a substantial amount of time and effort into your blogs. The bloggers who are most successful at making money also have to adapt to the changing internet landscape on a constant basis in order to continue monetizing their blogs effectively.

Labels: blogging, social_media

There are a plethora of SEO companies vying for your business out there. Some of them will say just about anything to get you to become a customer. While it’s true that SEO is an essential investment in this day and age, many SEO companies make empty promises and are merely out to make a buck. Protect yourself from SEO scams by looking out for these 5 warning signs when hiring a company for your business’ SEO needs.

1. Recommending web content with specific keyword densities

Back when Google first started it may have been possible to rank with keyword-stuffed content but these days it’s worth your while to appeal to human readers more so than search engines. Sure, it’s a good idea to utilize keywords in your content but don’t overdo it. Run the other way if an SEO “specialist” tells you that your content must have a 15% keyword density or something of the like. Excessive keyword usage can get your site banned from the search engines.

2. Charging prices that are too good to be true

You may have come across supposed SEO companies that charge very little for their services and promise you a lot in return. The rule of thumb is that if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Large SEO companies that charge thousands of dollars for their services and provide you with expert analysts, programmers, and link building experts would not be able to stay in business if those cheap SEO services really worked.

3. Guaranteeing a number one Google ranking for your site

Any company that guarantees you a number one rank on Google is outright lying. Just because a company won’t guarantee it doesn’t mean they can’t do it either –it is simply something that cannot be set in stone. Buying the top organic search engine rankings is not possible and Google decides the ranking of each website based on over 100 different factors. Now if a company promises to get you in the top 10 or 20 of Google search results that is more realistic.

4. Promising to get your content on the front page of social media sites

Some SEO companies may promise to get content from your site to the front page of social media sites like Reddit and Digg. They may tell you that they have a bunch of people working for them who will vote for your article in order for it to get to the front page. Not only do these unethical practices risk getting you banned (because it’s obvious when content doesn’t really belong on the front page), you won’t get much link love anyway unless your content is incredibly interesting and informative. But in that case, you shouldn’t have to pay someone to get it on the front page for you anyway!

5. Suggesting black hat SEO practices

If an SEO company mentions any black hat practices such as putting hidden text on your website, adding your link to a link farm, or stuffing meta tags with keywords, steer clear. You can risk getting your website banned from the search engines by meddling with black hat SEO techniques. The short term results are not worth the long term consequences.

Keep these warning signs in mind when interviewing SEO companies. You must find an SEO company that promises realistic results and utilizes ethical SEO techniques. Remember that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. You may have to splurge on worthwhile SEO services but your investment will pay off in a big way.

Labels: seo_guide, seo_services

When it comes to increasing your blog reader base and driving more traffic to your posts, there are few platforms more effective than Twitter. Twitter is an excellent tool for connecting with your readers and building a rapport. All businesses should use Twitter as a part of their marketing and branding strategy. For bloggers, knowing how to use Twitter effectively can lead to unbeatable exposure. Here are 5 steps any blogger can take to get his posts to go viral on Twitter.

1. Increase Your Followers

Obviously it’s going to be challenging to get your tweeted posts seen by a lot of people if there are only 20 people following you. Your first strategy should be to increase the number of people that are following you. The easiest way to do this is to follow lots of new people. Newbies tend to follow you right back. You can also look up the target keywords in your niche and follow the people who are talking about those keywords on Twitter. It’s particularly helpful to find the users who have a big following in your niche and then try to get them to follow you because they are the ones that will help your content go viral. Avoid following too many people who don’t follow you back because this can make your account look spammy and give you a bad image. Make sure the number of followers you have and the number of people you follow are about the same or at least not drastically different.

2. Become an Expert in Your Niche

Be consistent with your tweets. Regularly link to interesting articles that you think would be of interest to your followers and provide them with value every time. By regularly linking to informative articles in your niche, your followers will begin to look to you as a great source of information. This is an effective way to build your brand and it will pave the way for you to tweet your own posts. Your followers will be expecting valuable content since you have already positioned yourself as an expert in your niche.

3. Promote Your Blog

Don’t expect people to find your Twitter page and click on your link. Make the most of Twitter by tweeting your own posts! Treat your tweets as if they were your headline. Make them attention-grabbing and interesting so more people click through. Try posting the same tweet twice at different times of day to make sure you reach all your readers who didn’t see your first tweet. When you post a tweet multiple times, make sure to delete the first tweet so you don’t look like a spammer.

4. Write Interesting Articles for Your Blog

This might sound obvious but sometimes the more obsessed people get with promoting their blog and social networking, the less they pay attention to writing posts of good quality on a consistent basis. When you are just writing to fill up your blog, it shows. Make sure your posts are very informative, well-written, and that they provide unique information your readers won’t be able to find elsewhere.

5. Make It Easy for Your Followers to Re-Tweet Your Articles

After you’ve done all of the above, you have to leave it to your followers to do the rest. To make it easier for your followers to repost your tweets, add a “tweet this” link at the bottom of your tweets. How do you do it? Simply go to http://addthis.com/ and place the bookmarking plugin in your html.

If you aren’t already using Twitter, you’re missing an immense opportunity to give your website/blog good exposure. If you’re looking for a strategy to increase subscribers, traffic to your site, and a loyal reader base, Twitter is an indispensable tool that should play a prominent role in your master plan.

Labels: blogging, social_media

You can write awesome content for your website but if it doesn’t get any eyeballs, you might as well just be writing in your own diary. The most effective way to drive traffic to your site is writing great content and attracting natural traffic with it through effective link-building. Here are some surefire strategies that will help you build your links and boost your seo rankings.

Using Social Media Sites

Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit allow you to get your content seen by a large number of people in a short amount of time and it helps you build authoritative links. To be successful on these social media sites, you have to study the type of articles that go viral on them. Make sure your headline is very compelling and that it includes your target SEO keywords.

Another important aspect of submitting to social media sites is writing a killer summary of your article. Many people don’t even bother looking at the content and just vote based on the headline and summary. And if you’re looking to make your content viral, don’t submit your stories yourself because that is looked down upon in the social media world. Have a friend submit it instead.

Growing Relationships with Others in Your Niche

If there are high profile bloggers or others with great influence in your niche, try to contact them off the record. You can send out introductory emails with a compelling message explaining what you offer, connect with them on Twitter, or use instant messaging. Rather than trying to beg for someone to link to you, offer them something interesting so they are enticed to help you out in the future.

Make Guest Appearances

If you are a writer, write guest blog posts on popular blogs in your niche. In order to get the opportunity to do this, it’s obviously helpful to network first. Write killer blog posts when you make guest appearances and link to relevant content on your site throughout your post if possible. Some blogs may only allow you to link to your content in your byline.

Your byline will make a big difference between someone clicking through or ignoring your link. The biggest mistake people make when writing a byline is to write a bio instead of writing about what benefits their link could offer the reader.

Submitting Your Articles to Article Directories

Submit original articles that are not on your site to article directories such as Ezinearticles. An article directory like Ezinearticles gives you a resource box where you are allowed to place links to your site. This alone does not add up to an effective link building strategy since content on these directories is often re-published on hundreds to thousands of sites, making their links have less value to search engines. However, you can build a substantial amount of organic traffic to your site with an article marketing campaign. Furthermore, sites that can provide you with powerful links may also reproduce the content, making article marketing an effective link-building strategy for the long-term.

In conclusion, use these link-building strategies to get your content seen because content that doesn’t get read may as well not exist. These link-building tactics will drive traffic to your content in addition to building your site’s authority in your target niche.

Labels: link_building, seo_guide, seo_services